Title : A NEW METHOD FOR MEASURING SPUTTERING IN THE REGION NEAR THRESHOLD,

Corporate Author : GENERAL DYNAMICS/ASTRONAUTICS SAN DIEGO CALIF

Personal Author(s) : McKeown,Daniel

Report Date : 01 APR 1960

Pagination or Media Count : 17

Abstract : In a recently constructed molecular beam apparatus a new low level sputtering erosion gauge has been tested. The gauge consisted of a 10 mc, gold plated, quartz crystal oscillator whose frequency was sensitive to the removal of less than a millimicrogram of gold. The gold plating was sputtered from the crystal by a singly charged argon beam at normal incidence. The beam energy was varied between 0 and 100 ev. Since the sensitivity of the gauge is very high, sputtering rates were determined by measuring the increase in crystal frequency after only 30 seconds in the beam. Rates for other metals or for nonmetals can be measured by using them to plate or overplate the crystal. The gauge has been used as a detector of neutral particles whose energy was above the threshold of sputtering. The process of deposition of the beam on the crystal can also be detected by a corresponding frequency decrease. (Author)